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The Teddy Bear Teddy Bears

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The Teddy Bear
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Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 4 to 6
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	6.23

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		refused, harmless, design, ever, fever, traveled, nephew, bears, lived, honor, state, fact, artist, company, shoot, neighbor
	content words:		President Roosevelt, Washington Post, Rose Michtom, New York, Margarete Steiff

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The Teddy Bear By Tammy Scarbrough

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¹     Have you ever wondered about the first teddy bear? This cuddly friend of ours has not always been around. In fact, it's only been a little over a hundred years that we have had the teddy bear. The story starts with America's twenty-sixth president - Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt.
 
²     President Roosevelt traveled to Mississippi because the state was having a disagreement with its neighbor, Louisiana, about some land that each claimed. President Roosevelt was a great hunter, so some people took him hunting while he was in Mississippi. Things were not going well with the hunt, so someone caught a bear and tied it to the tree for President Roosevelt to shoot. Roosevelt refused to shoot the helpless bear.
 
³     The next day, a cartoon artist drew the scene. It was put into the Washington Post newspaper on November 16, 1902, for all of America to see. A couple named Morris and Rose Michtom, who lived in New York, saw the cartoon. The Michtoms owned a toy store and decided to make a stuffed bear to honor the president's actions in letting the helpless bear live. They called it "Teddy's Bear." Other bear toys had been made in the past, but all of them had looked mean and threatening. The Michtoms' bear looked sweet and harmless. People bought the bears as fast as the Michtoms could make them.

Paragraphs 4 to 5:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

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Teddy Bears

Teddy Bears

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